Washing machines have been developed that can wash racks and/or trolleys supporting a plurality of objects. These machines are known in the sector as rack washers, but as mentioned they are washing machines which have reached very high levels of sophistication because they must wash animal cages used in animal facilities in research centers for containing laboratory animals.
A washing machine known in the prior art comprises a washing chamber, usually having a volume of approximately 6-8 cubic meters. Such a chamber is provided to house laboratory equipment, hereinafter named “load” (e.g. a trolley on which the objects and the other accessories to be washed are positioned).
The machine further comprises one or more tanks for preparing the washing water. Such tanks are connected to the washing chamber provided with centrifuge pumps for hydraulic movement. A bath collection vessel is placed under the floor of the chamber to collect the water exiting from the chamber itself.
More in detail, the machine comprises a plurality of rods placed within the washing chamber. Such rods each comprise a plurality of nozzles capable of spraying water onto the load to wash it. In use, the washing bath is aspirated from the tank mentioned above and is thus sent to the rods. The water falls into the vessel after having struck the load. At this point, the bath can be extracted from the vessel and returned to the washing tank. In order to spray the bath on all the exposed surfaces of the load, the rods are rotated about their axes by a given angle with a reciprocating motion with respect to the rest position during the washing cycle.
In the prior art, the machines comprise eight rods described above, arranged on two longitudinal sides of the machine, four on each side. Disadvantageously, the loss of fluid-dynamic loads related to the presence of the rods causes a considerable energy consumption and requires oversizing the pump, which both cause high running costs related to the considerably energy consumption in turn.